PARENTS

CLASSICAL LITERATURE QUOTES

Nonnus, Dionysiaca 18. 274 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) :
"[Ares] brought low such another, Ekhidna's (Echidna's) son, the gods' enemy, spitting the horrible poison of hideous Ekhidna. He had two shapes together, and in the forest he shook the twisting coils of his mother's spine. Kronos (Cronus) used this huge creature to confront the thunderbolt [of Zeus], hissing war with the snaky soles of his feet; when he realised his hands above the circle of the breast and fought against your Zeus, and lifting his high head, covered it with masses of cloud in the paths of the sky. Then if the birds came wandering into his tangled hair, he often swept them together into his capacious throat for a dinner. This masterpiece your brother Ares killed."